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The Nostalgia Issue

Modern versions of our favorite childhood stuff

Surely there are psychological reasons why we shouldn’t project our own childhood obsessions on our kids. But it’s really hard to resist the temptation of a toddler Springsteen concert tee or a Shrinky Dinks kit. So just for fun we’ve rounded up some of the best reinterpretations of the things we remember fondly from the 70s and 80s.

So far 2012 has seen the return of Big Wheels, Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, and the Broadway revival of Annie. While the HUB airs daily episodes of Care Bares, My Little Pony, and Strawberry Shortcake, we’ve got much higher hopes for the new Mister Rogers Neighborhoodspinoff, which launches on PBS Kids in September. Between Fisher-Price and Hasbro, you can still find most of the classic toys we all had as toddlers—including the Chatter Phone, Two Tune TV, Mr. Potato Head, and Lite Brite.

Somewhat devastatingly, the Snoopy Sno Cone Machine was discontinued last year, but Williams-Sonoma has a sleek new gadget that does essentially the same thing. Unfortunately there isn’t a decent Donkey Kong app yet, but you can kinda sorta relive your ColecoVision glory days with Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii. We’re perennial fans of Junk Food’s retro superhero tees and Rockabye Baby’s classic rock lullaby CDs, and were psyched to discover cool vintage-style metal lunch boxes on lunchbox.com, smelly stickers at scratch-and-sniff-stickers.com, and thousands of ribbon barrette vendors on etsy. Let’s all agree to ignore the fact that Hungry-Man is still making Salisbury Steak dinners and instead drool over the pricey but brilliant candy-inspired furniture from Jellio.

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